Words from the Front

Salacious commentary concerning word foibles and linguistic underachievement, especially concerning writing, editing, grammar, usage, style, and punctuation, the microphone for which is at times appropriated for rants and reviews

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Book Review—Too Many Carrots

Awesome Illustrations, but the Story's Resolution, Along with How It Gets There, Is Quite Problematic. 2/5 Too Many Carrots , a children's picture book by Katy Hudson (Capstone Young Readers) I bought this book in Barnes & Noble when Capstone marketing-blitzed it by paying for an entire table display in each store (I can't imagine what the budget was for that). I've read it several times and experienced several emotions reading it, but mostly it just makes me sad.

Doppelgängers

Donnie Iris and Eugene Levy—Separated at Birth? I've always found it strange that no one ever comments about the fact that Eugene Levy and Donnie Iris appear to be the same person:

I Don't Know. Did They Play Texas Hold 'Em in the Mid-1800s?

On How to Find the Frequency and Existence of Words and Phrases Lordy, Lordy, Buckeroos, and a happy day to you! Today's theme is secrets. Let me share a secret with you, but don't share our secret with anyone I've blocked. That would be bad. But unlike a priest who admonishes a child not to share their secret lest the child's family be cursed, I shall merely be sad. It's called the Google Ngram Viewer. Ever wonder about variations on a word--for instance, symmetric versus symmetrical? The dictionary says they are both fine, but what do folks use in practice? The Ngram Viewer will tell you. It's not perfect, but it's the best there is to date. And you can search date ranges, which is especially helpful for historical fiction (so you don't mistakenly use "home run" [mid-1800s] or "all in" [1903] in a book set in the early 1800s):